Watch the First Six Minutes of MANIAC Featuring Elijah Wood’s First Kill

How do you prefer your Elijah Wood: as a young and innocent Hobbit or as a bloodthirsty stalker and serial killer? If it’s the latter, you’ll enjoy the first six minutes of director Franck Khalfoun’s Maniac. The remake of William Lustig’s 1980 horror thriller features Wood as a mannequin store owner who develops a nasty obsession with pretty young women, whom he kills and scalps. The previously released trailers (here and here) show off some of the violence, but the first six minutes of the film are a slow build to the film’s first kill. A lot of tropes are on display (only dumb and pretty girls are targeted by serial killers, after all) but something about Wood as the stalker/killer makes this extra creepy (see Sin City). I’m also digging the soundtrack sampling, which reminds me a bit of Drive. Hit the jump to watch the first six minutes of Maniac, opening in 2013.

Check out the opening six minutes of Maniac below (via The Film Stage):

Here’s the synopsis for Maniac:

Just when the streets seemed safe, a serial killer with a fetish for scalps is back and on the hunt. Frank is the withdrawn owner of a mannequin store, but his life changes when young artist Anna appears asking for his help with her new exhibition. As their friendship develops and Frank’s obsession escalates, it becomes clear that she has unleashed a long-repressed compulsion to stalk and kill.